Fan’s perspective: How Chipolopolo played against Zimbabwe

On Sunday, Zambia and Zimbabwe played to a goalless stalemate in another edition of the ‘Battle of Zimbabwe’ in Harare.

Below Tony Mash gives a verdict on how the Chipolopolo Boys accounted for the themselves after watching the full match.

I had the opportunity to watch Chipolopolo in action against Zimbabwe and this what I observed.

The system they were using was good, their ball passing it was beyond reduction.

They boys were building from the back led by the gangling defender Ziyo Tembo.

The team showed cohesion.

Zimbabwe dominated the first ten minutes. They failed to convert their dominance into goals.

Chipolopolo took over control of the game and they had a scoring opportunity wasted in the 18th minute.

They continued dominating with Fwayo Tembo tormenting the Zimbabwean defence.

Ronald Kampamba and Jackson Mwanza were passengers upfront as they failed to make a meaningful contribution.

There was little goal mouth action in the first half with the half ending goalless.

In the second half the Chipolopolo came into the game rejuvinated and they played some purposeful football, attacking in numbers.

Augustine Mulenga was the chief culprit he wasted numerous chances.

The best chance of the day saw Mulenga beat the goalkeeper and he saw the ball rolling into the yawning net but former pretoria university defender cleared it off the line.

Another opportunity fell to Chingandu. Zambia won a free kick and it was well taken by Fwayo. He picked a well positioned chingandu but his free header was weak. It was safely collected by the goalkeeper.

Zimbabwe won a free kick in a precarious position after Billy Mutale brought down a zimbabwean striker.

The boys were forced to make an eight man wall to protect Mweene from a thunderous ball from the Zimbabwean goalkeeper who scored in open play for CAPS United when they played Zanaco at Nkoloma stadium.

Earlier in the first half his free kick forced Mweene to stretch to elastic limit. This time the free kick was poorly taken and Sibanda’s size eleven boot missed the target.

The whole Zambian crowd protested when the coach substituted effective Fwayo who to me was playing out of position.

He introduced Kelvin Mubanga and he made little impact.

The chipolopol boys continued attacking and Augustine Mulenga had another opportunity but he saw his effort missing the horizontal bar line with some few inches.

Some few mimutes later zimbabwe broke lose . Chitiyo received ball at a suspicious offside position and the refere did not blow the whistle. Even a helicopter pilot could have seen this offside and Wada Wada protested and he was eventually sent off.

This did not affect boys they contiuned attacking.

Skipper on the day Mweene showed some good leadership qualities as he motivated boys and one moment he was involved in infield plays exchanging some good passes with Ziyo Tembo.

The young stars who were given the opportunity executed themselves very well.

Billy Mutale, Taonga Bwembya, Augustine Mulenga and Chingandu. They were a marvel to watch.

The technical team did their best. But they have to look for box to box midfielder or a central midfielder.

How can Augustine Mulenga be a marvel to watch when you said from your analysis that He was a culprit as he missed a lot of chances maybe he was in there to entertain the fans with good foot-work but zero goals. None the less, excellent feedback @Tony mash thanks.

The strikers missed a lot of chances this is not good that’s why some of us have been advocating for the inclusion of walter bwalya in the national team the guy has every thing that you need in a striker